wether

See also: weþer

English

Pronunciation

(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛðɚ/
(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛðə/
Rhymes: -ɛðə(ɹ)
Homophones: weather, whether (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English wether, wethir, wedyr, from Old English weþer (“a wether, ram”), from Proto-Germanic *weþruz (“wether”), from Proto-Indo-European *wet- (“year”). Cognate with Scots weddir, woddir, wadder (“wether”), Dutch weder, weer (“wether”), German Widder (“wether, ram”), Norwegian Bokmål vær (“ram”), Norwegian Nynorsk vêr (“ram”), Swedish vädur (“wether, ram”), Icelandic veður (“wether, ram”), Latin vitulus (“calf”).

Alternative forms

wedder (dialectal)

Noun

wether (plural wethers)

A castrated buck goat.
A castrated ram.
- c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV scene i:
  I am a tainted wether of the flock,
  Meetest for death […]

Derived terms

bellwether

Translations

castrated buck goat

Danish: bede (da) c
Dutch: weer (nl) m
Esperanto: kastrita virkapro (eo), eksvirkapro
Finnish: salvupukki
German: Mönch (de) m, kastrierter Ziegenbock (de) m
Kazakh: серке (serke)
Latin: vervex m
Navajo: tłʼízí choʼádinii
Portuguese: castrão (pt) m

Scottish Gaelic: cull-bhoc m, eibhreannach m, laos-boc m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: брав m
Roman: brav (sh) m
Spanish: castrón m
Swedish: hammel (sv), kastrerad bagge
Turkish: iğdiş teke, burulmuş teke
Tuvan: серге (särgä)
Volapük: hokapar (vo)

castrated ram

Catalan: moltó (ca) m
Czech: skopec (cs) m
Danish: bede (da) c
Dutch: hamel (nl) m
Esperanto: kastrita virŝafo
Faroese: geldingur m
Finnish: oinas (fi)
Friulian: monton
German: Hammel (de) m, Schöps (de) m
Hungarian: ürü (hu)
Irish: molt m
Italian: montone (it) m

Kazakh: ісек (isek)
Latin: vervex
Manx: mohlt m, mohltin m
Maori: hipi tame raho-poka, wēta
Portuguese: carneiro castrado m
Romanian: batal (ro) m
Russian: валу́х (ru) m (valúx)
Scottish Gaelic: mult m
Spanish: carnero castrado m, castrón m
Turkish: iğdiş koç, burulmuş koç
Volapük: hojip (vo)
Welsh: mollt(yn) m, gwedder m (South)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Lithuanian: ^{(please verify)} skapas m

Verb

wether (third-person singular simple present wethers, present participle wethering, simple past and past participle wethered)

(transitive) To castrate a male sheep or goat.

Translations

to castrate a male sheep or goat

Finnish: kuohita (fi), salvaa (fi)

Turkish: iğdiş etmek (tr), burmak (tr), kısırlaştırmak, taşak burmak

Noun

wether

Archaic spelling of weather.
- 1527, George Joye, The storie of my state after the bishop had receyued the pryours letters‎:
  There was a great fyer in the chamber, the wether was colde, and I saw now and then a Bishop come out;
  (cited after Samuel Roffey Maitland, 1866, p. 8)